What's the best movie theme or fanfare?

Cafe Society
41

A personal favorite: the main titles from Willow Whistful, but powerful. I think it was by, uh, no, wait a minute, it’s on the tip of my tongue, uh, gee, gosh, who was it, uh, maybe, er, was it, uh, JAMES FREAKIN’ HORNER, THE GREATEST MUSICAL GENIUS EVER TO PEN A MOVIE SCORE? The fanfare was good enough to show up in the trailer for, like, every fantasy movie made for the next fifteen years, I think.

Many of my favorites have already been mentioned: Superman, Raiders, Batman, and Star Wars, undisputed champion of stirring scores.

Apollo 13, also by Horner, is awesome. Soaring, that’s what it is.

I also think Jerry Goldsmith’s titles for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, adapted by Dennis McCarthy (I think) into the Next Generation theme song, is the best Trek fanfare (though I like the subdued theme from DS9 a smidge better overall).

And, what the hell, Stargate hasn’t been mentioned yet. Builds slowly, but has excellent vocal work.

42

Starage was the first score by David Arnold, by the way. He hasn’t managed to do anything of note since, sadly.

43

I am surprised no one has mentioned Hitchcock films. North by Northwest and Pshycho come to mind.

Other scores I like Chariots of Fire ,The Apartment and High Noon

But if I had to pick one,I would go with Third Man as well.

44

Oh I forgot: some of Miyazaki’s anime have great scores too. Princess Mononoke is excellent. The main themes of Kiki’s Delivery Service and Nausicaa are very good (though the latter has some horrible electronic music mixed in there as well)

45

I did, but indirectly. These are both the work of Bernard Hermann, who I cite above. Besides Hitchcock, he did wonderful themes for Ray Harryhausen pix. The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad is excellent.

46

I forgot to mention:

– Dmitri Tiomkin’s score for The Guns of Navarone blows me away.

– A lot of Elmer Bernstein’s stuff is great. Besides The Great Escape (mentioned above), he also did The Magnificent Seven, which the Marlboro people apparently used for years in their TV commercials. He did a lot of other great scores. Amazingly, he did the score for MST3K classic Robot Monster!

– As a monster movie fan, I’d be negligent if I didn’t mention Max Steiner (King Kong, not to mention a lot of classic flicks) and Hans J. Salter (A lot of Frankenstein movies).

47

Uh, I believe you are mistaken. Not about the composer of “Willow”, who indeed is James Horner, but the name of the GREATEST MUSICAL GENIUNS TO EVER PEN A MUSIC SCORE. I believe you got the wrong name. The correct name would be JERRY GOLDSMITH. (Oh yes! Let’s get into film composer wars here!) :wink:

Well, actually, Horner is fabulous too, it’s just that I am forever devoted to Goldsmith. I remember that some of Horner’s early scores were somewhat iffy, IMO. But remember the 1983 Natalie Wood movie “Brainstorm”? I believe that’s when Horner started getting really good. An excellent score. (Why yes, I do go back aways!)

Stargate’s a good choice, another great score.

I recently have gotten hooked on the score to “Conspiracy Theory”, by Carter Burwell. It really grows on you.

CalMeacham: Elmer Bernstein is often overlooked, and it’s a shame. He’s done some great stuff. His credits on IMDb: http://us.imdb.com/Name?Bernstein,+Elmer. He’s amazing, and still going strong at—what is it? Age 80? Way cool.

48

Joe Hisaishi, who did the music for all the Miyazaki anime has also done the music for most (all?) of the Takeshi Kitano movies as well. I’m quite a fan of his, and my personal favourite is the score to Kikujiro

49

speaking of being surprised, I’m surprised no one has mentioned Conan the Barbarian. Best score i’ve ever heard, PLUS a lot more “fanfarish” than some of the other entries here. (It’s a great cd to play while RPGing btw :slight_smile:

but the score to FotR is up there with the best, in fact, i think i’ll put it on now (the track with the chasm is one of the best scary songs ive heard, soundtrack or not)

50

The tubular bells from “The Exorcist”

51

The Omen

I also like the score from Dragonheart. I remember that for quite a few years after the movie came out, various mediums used the theme from it for their benefit.

My favorite, though, is the opening of Beetlejuice (as aquariusrhimme mentioned Danny Elfman). I like it so much that I’ll even back up to the begining of it (while watching on DVD) so that I can hear it again!

52

I’ll second The Godfather and American Beauty, and also add James Horner’s score for A Beautiful Mind. It was hauntingly beautiful, and also the first time I’ve bought a movie soundtrack purely for the score.

53

I second the A Beautiful Mind score, I loved the soundtrack I had to get the CD. IMHO he should have won the Oscar for Score.

I loved the “Smart Guy”, when nash is breaking through to wite the Governing Dynamics Paper and the Codebreaking at the Pentagon.

54

I second the A Beautiful Mind score, I loved the soundtrack I had to get the CD. IMHO he should have won the Oscar for Score.

I loved the “Smart Guy Music”, when Nash is breaking through to write the Governing Dynamics Paper and the Codebreaking at the Pentagon.

55

Didn’t Tangerine Dream also do the score for Legend (Tom Cruise, Dir by Ridley Scott)?

If the score goes something like “hmmm MMMMM hmmm HMMMMM -MMMMM” and “ba-ba BA…BA-BAH”, its gotta be Hans Zimmer:
**
Pearl Harbor
Gladiator
Crimson Tide
Thin Red Line
The Rock
Days of Thunder
**
etc etc etc
hell, it aint an action movie unless it says “music composed by Hans Zimmer” in the opening credits (usually right after it says “a Jerry Bruckheimer or Michael Bay film”)

Although my all time favorite score has to be Last of the Mohicans (Trevor Jones/Randy Edelman)

56

My vote goes to The Thomas Crown Affair (the recent one). The playful piano fits the movie really well.

57

yes, in the American version. The UK version (“original” version and generally considered superior, I have been led to believe) has a score by Jerry Goldsmith.